Puthiyakavu, 9 September 2011
The excitement could be felt in the air! The students’ creativity and hard work was about to be put to the test. It all started 3 days earlier when the 4 House Mistresses each chose 20 students (10 junior and 10 senior) to represent each individual house in the annual Pookalam competition.
The students enthusiastically met several times with lighthearted but serious debates over design and color while taking into consideration the many traditional items. One house broke tradition by selecting the Amma Logo for its Pookalam design! Once the design was chosen, the availability of flowers would determine the colors. The students participated in a variety of ways in the creation of the Pookalams. For example, one collected the soil to be used as the base. Another borrowed a dhoti from a neighbor for Maha Bali to wear. One student even climbed a coconut tree himself to collect the poonkula!
On the day of the competition, the students themselves performed pujas to Sri Ganapathy to remove all obstacles. Creativity flowed throughout the 2 hour allotted time to make the Pookalams as subtle changes in the design occurred even up to the last minute. Exacting attention to every detail had to be there as the sharpness of the design – in particular, the border – had to be perfect.
As classmates filed through the Prayer Hall to see the finished designs, the judges’ deliberation continued for almost an hour. It was a very close competition and the teamwork, creativity and attention to detail definitely paid off. The winners were announced during the assembly to rounds of applause….. Jyothirmayi… first place! – Big Poolakam and Amritamayi… first place Small Pookalam…. with whisperings of “next year, we’ll change this… and next year, we’ll add that ….”